jorge has always put the ones he loves first. but when it comes to caring for his teeth he's let his own maintenance take a back seat. well maybe it's time to shift gears on that. aspen dental has complete, affordable care all under one roof. plus, free exams and x-rays for new patients without insurance and 20% off treatment plans for everyone. making it easier to get started with quality care. it's one more way aspen dental is in your corner. >> martha: good afternoon, i've martha maccallum and this

is maga pico hhs secretary rfk jr. and white house press secretary karoline leavitt join us live on "the story" today as president trump goes on offense against china. this is what it's all about. it's all about the relationship between the united states and china as he ramps up tariffs, 145% including the sentinel -- tariffs as well as what we are leveling against china. other countries have active processes, it sounds like they may be closed to deals to cut those deals with the united states. the president gave us an update at a wide-ranging cabinet meeting moments ago. >> everybody wants to come and make a deal. we are working with a lot of different countries and it's all going to work out very well, i think it's going to work out well. >> martha: the white house says the latest tariffs on china bring the grand total as i mentioned to 145% on incoming

goods causing even more pain when beijing's economy is already in trouble. >> they were in a recession/depression due to a real estate collapse that -- a real estate bubble that has been deflating, that has been going on for years and the economy was in terrible shape. again, they are going to go from bad to terrible. >> martha: mr. wonderful kevin o'leary standing by his calling for 400% tariffs against china, saying "squeeze chinese heads into the wall now." that would be his is this approach. let's bring in fox business anchors stuart varney, great to have you with us this afternoon thank you for joining us. your reaction to this 145% tariff against china. in your opinion, are we clearly in a trade war and perhaps a broader war with china?

>> yes, we are clearly in a trade war with china. when you up the ante and go up to 145% tariffs against china and everybody else gets a three month holiday from these reciprocal tariffs, we have taken aim at china. from my position, i tend to agree with mr. wonderful right there. china is a vulnerable. they are isolated to. we don't know how they're going to sell the stuff they were going to sell to america. where are they going to sell it to? europe doesn't want it. there are dangers here, let's be honest about this. the danger is that other countries gang up on america, joined china, join some kind of joint resistance. that is a danger. there is also a danger of recession. janet yellen, former treasury secretary says a recession is more likely because of the great mistake of these trump tariffs

but at the same time we do have inflation coming down, softening a little and we do have other countries making deals with america. we would like to hear what those deals are. what are the details of those deals? and they operate as a template going forward? yes there are dangers, there are opportunities, at the moment the stock market is saying watch out. we are not quite sure where this is going. personally i think the stakes are extremely high. i think the presidency rests on tariffs, on tax cuts, red tape, and cheap energy. we are in the right direction and there's no going back. >> martha: there's no doubt the president is following through on all of the big items that he campaigned on and i think he wants to push them quickly because the more he can get through, they are doing this

big beautiful pills -- cope with plenty of room heading into the midterms he's hoping he could have some big achievements to look at by the time he gets to the midterms. that's why we are seeing this barrage right now. china is not going to take this lying down. they have already said they are adding american companies to their blacklist, they are crossing off any defense companies that are selling any defensive weaponry to taiwan. they sound like they have been preparing for quite some time for this and they are ready to engage. >> yes they are. i hope they are ready to engage. they may try to back off and play hard ball and they playing hardball. but they are vulnerable. their economy is not in good shape. it's actually in very bad shape. they have to work out where are they going to sell all of these

products they use to sell to america, they might not sell them in the future, where they going to sell them? are they going to sell them to europe? europe doesn't want a bunch of cheap chinese product products dumped on their turf, they don't want to that. what are they going to do? i am told, kevin hassett told me this morning on my show that already ships bearing chinese goods going to america are not stranded but held up. they can't leave because i don't know whether they are coming to america or not. that is a problem for china, they've got to face it and they are going to live up to the reputation as being somebody who believes in trade and i don't think they do. >> martha: when i say engage i meant in battle. it looks like that's what they are doing. they have weakening currency, lower gdp growth, slow down of foreign direct investment, ongoing property market downturns which we heard about from the treasury secretary and remember that australia was

approached by china and said let's do a side deal let's given everything going on and they said no, thank you. >> we are in a strong position. we have leverage on them, exploit it. >> martha: thank you, great to see you this afternoon. stuart varney joining us on "the story." the trump tariffs apparently already as we've just been talking about adding to china's economic pain. "the new york times" reporting chinese factories are struggling to survive. "small factories with tiny profit margins has played a central role in china's international competitiveness. many could face danger, disaster. here at home, fox news digital full stomach spoke with auto workers in michigan about the president's tariffs. >> things have to be reset, right off the bat they are starting to bring manufacturing back. >> it seem like every idea he making right now is a bad idea.

>> martha: let's bring in kevin o'leary, shark tank star and investor, as i mentioned he would like to see 400% tariffs on china and he said pretty strong language, squeeze chinese heads into the wall now. you want to explain what you're looking for in both of those opinions? >> in the case of china it's not just tariffs it's not just a trade. ever since they join the wto in 2,000 they have not abided by the rules and regulations. they have never, ever been compliant. over time, this also happened in europe and definitely domestically in the u.s. they have stolen an incredible amount, trillions of dollars of ip and there has never been any consequences until this administration. i'm pretty frustrated as an investor, the classic situation is to find a product or service in america, you put it on the

american market at a run rate of $5 million a year on amazon and it's ripped off in china. there's nothing you can do, you can't appeal to wto, you can't litigate because we don't have access to their courts. even though they have access to ours. not only that, they have access to our capital markets. we let them list companies here, i have to compete with a chinese company that is not compliant with gap, they completely ignore the regulator, raise money when i have to compete on the basis where i have to be compliant and spend millions of dollars in compliance and make sure the sec and all the other regulatory bodies are okay with my issuance but not the chinese, why? >> martha: you put it to ask specific examples of why this is so unfair for american companies versus chinese companies and obviously chinese companies are essentially owned by the government. it's not a capitalism market

like we have here. how do you think -- given china's economic struggles on their side and we see that they have been entrenching and figuring out how they are going to handle this -- what do you think they are going to do at this point? >> why are we messing around, just go to 400%, get everybody on a plane and let's meet -- what are they going to do, 25% every day until you're at 400? just go to 400 and that it becomes impossible for them to access the american market which is 39% of all consumption in the world and 26.1% of the world's gdp. china cannot do without america, period. the reason that president xi would be caring about this, he only gets to be president in perpetuity while people are employed in eating and making sure their families are taken care of. of its smashed closers of factories he's screwed, he knows

that too. right now is stuart varney detailed and others know this it's a precarious situation in china on their currency and a lot of other issues as you measure their economy. i want to be clear about this. i have no problem with the chinese people and i along with millions of other investors want to do business in china. but i've had it with getting screwed on ip, i'm done. i want someone to go in there and level the playing field and that's what i want. i'm willing to take the volatility. >> martha: they have extracted intellectual property in order for companies to get the right to do business in china as well. thank you very much. we'll talk to you soon. still ahead, we will speak with the health and human services secretary rfk jr. we will be joined by white house press secretary karoline leavitt a number of topics, one of which is some clarity on why that case

against this alleged ms-13 leader arrested in virginia could soon be dismissed. next. >> all of these gangs, they are enemies of our country, they are terrorists, they are organized crime they have come here, they are extremely organized. they are spread throughout our country and they are creating terror. no more under your directive, that has stopped. from a one man show to 45 team members in louisville, kentucky. now we're going to be in 20,000 grocery stores nationwide. like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. break away to what's possible with tremfya® with rapid relief at 4 weeks many people experienced remission at 1 and even 2 years. some saw 100% visible healing of their intestinal lining.

serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. healing is possible with tremfya®. tremfya® is now approved for crohn's disease. ask your doctor about tremfya®.

when i started walton goggins' goggle glasses, i needed a website. and godaddy airo uses ai to make a beautiful website so fast it'll blow my customers' noggins. while they're shopping for goggins for their noggins. ♪ here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max!

yeah it is weird that we still call these things "phones." well yeah, they're more like minicomputers. precisely. next slide. xfinity mobile customers are connected to wifi 90% of the time. that's why our network has powerboost with speeds up to a gig wherever you need it most. so, this whole meeting could have been remote? oh! that is my ex-husband who i don't speak to. hey! no, i'm good to talk! try xfinity mobile for a year! get an unlimited 5g mobile line included with your xfinity internet, plus a free 5g phone. >> martha: two weeks ago, we watched a dramatic rate of play out in virginia with attorney general pam bondi and fbi director kash patel front and center as agents arrested 24-year-old jose santos. the doj says he is one of the top three ms-13 leaders, they

say he controlled the eastern part of the country living here in the united states, watch. >> he was the leader for the east coast one of the top three in the entire country. right here in virginia living half an hour outside of washington, d.c. he is an illegal alien from el salvador. and he will not be living in our country much longer. >> martha: he was charged with illegal gun possession and now the doj has moved to dismiss the case and deport him. that rages a lot of questions. first a correspondent david spunt reporting live on this from washington. >> reporter: a judge wants to know more and just scheduled a hearing for next tuesday pick of the attorney general all the way of the president trump made a big deal about this case. yesterday the doj with the drop the case with no public reason. fox was there as the fbi took henrry josue villatoro santos into custody early on the

morning of march 27th. >> we took down this morning a top leader of ms-13. that is not done easily, that is done with brilliant law enforcement. >> it was one of the top leaders of ms-13 living here. illegal immigrant in that illegal immigrant is going to go back to where he came from. >> reporter: he was charged in court with illegally owning a gun on march 27th, the attorney general later that day said more charges were on the way. >> he belongs back in that el salvador prison and that's where he should go. you're going to see a lot more charges on him. >> reporter: those charges never came, doj not giving specifics about what's going on behind the scenes and we are told by sources there are negotiations to deport him. pam bondi telling fox news in a statement "as a terrorist he will now face the removal process. his attorneys are asking for a judge to delay any dismissal writing "the danger of him being

unlawfully deported by ice without due process and removed to el salvador where he would almost certainly be immediately detained at one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to contest his removal is substantial, both in light of the government's recent actions in the very public pronouncements in this particular case. "a judge would still need to sign off on any dismissal but attorneys acknowledge normally he would be tried here before removal if he is indeed such a big threat to. >> martha: with that we bring in white house press secretary karoline leavitt. great to have you here this afternoon. can you said some light on this? it was a story we all covered that he was the east coast leader of ms-13. what was the evidence that supported that proclamation by the department of justice and fbi. >> here at the white house we applaud the attorney general pam bondi come fbi director kash patel for working hand-in-hand with local law enforcement on the ground in

the commonwealth of virginia had to detain and arrest this ms-13 ringleader. there was sufficient evidence to do so and now the cases in the hands of the department of homeland security who will be deporting this individual from our country. these agencies are working together in a collaborative way to follow president trump's directive to eradicate ms-13 and a foreign terrorists from united states soil. this is an individual who is detained and arrested because of the president's policies and he will no longer be residing in the united states of america and our country is safer because of it. >> martha: some clarity on it because if indeed he is what we were told he is, the east coast leader of ms-13, one didn't make sense to prosecute him for crimes related to that? i know he was held on a gun charge but to make sure any victims of ms-13 through his leadership get their day in court in the united states. and then send him to an el salvador in prison if he is deported and found guilty on

those crimes. >> this administration is doing things differently, this president has made a directive to his agencies particularly the department of homeland security to remove foreign terrorists from america's homeland to protect american citizens and we have an incredible diplomatic relationship with the president of el salvador and his government to have been detaining these ms-13 ringleaders and violent gang members in their prisons. american taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for that cost. >> martha: the supreme court said the alien act could be used to remove people what they had to have due process first i'm only pressing on this because it was a huge story and we covered it. obviously it would feel like that person could lead to a lot of other evidence. the doj would be depressing to see this in court so other people could be exposed and suddenly none of that is happening. can you explain why the change of course in this particular case? >> what i can tell you is the

president gave a directive to eradicate ms-13 ringleaders and gang members from our nation's communities, that's what's happening here. to anyone who believes these individuals should be living in america, the american people think differently. that's why they reelected this president by a historical margin -- >> martha: that's not what we are suggesting, we are just asking if he should be held in a prison somewhere until he faces justice in the country. >> he should be removed from american soil and that is the policy that this administration is following. >> martha: lots obviously to talk about, a big cabinet meeting we just watched play out this afternoon and lots of news made there. with regard to china and what we anticipate will come next, what has obviously turned into a full-blown trade war with china, is it to the white house policy at this point that we should pursue decoupling? given all the lines that have been stepped over by china and

the ripping off that china has none of the united states as the president talks about? >> with the policy of this white house and the trump administration should put america first, to bring back jobs that have been flooded overseas, to no longer allow china to dump cheap foreign products into the united states of america while they prevent american-made products from entering their market. china has been taking advantage of the american worker for decades both democrats and republicans have called on presidents to do something about this. to finally attack our crippling trade deficit with china and to also make them pay for the more than $600 billion they have stolen from american companies and taxpayers in the form of intellectual property. the president has great courage to finally take on china in this way. he has said he's open to talk season for negotiating a deal. he believes china wants to talk to the united states of america, the just don't know how to go about it. we've had more than 75 other nations across the globe reaching out to this

administration because they know this is the greatest country to do business and those deals are under way. they are being negotiated by the presence trade team but america cannot exist if we continue to enrich and embolden china and president trump is finally doing something about it. >> martha: is a number of companies china has put on the blacklist, some of them are defense companies that are providing equipment and weaponry to taiwan -- does the white house feel at this point that it is safe for u.s. companies to pursue business agreements with china? >> the president has made it clear he wants companies to do business right here in the united states of america. we have seen companies around the world, many of them who do business in china are investing back in the united states of america because of this president and his america first policies which is not just on america first trade agenda and tariff agenda it's also tax cuts. the house just passed the reconciliation package today or at least the framework for it --

that continues to move forward to. we see massive deregulatory efforts underway. we see energy incoming boom in this country, oil prices down 20%. we have an inflation outcome a cpi index is down the second month in a row. consumer prices have dropped for the first time since covid to. this a great reason to be optimistic about america's economy. trust and president trump, look at what he did in his first term. companies would be best serve the doing business right here in the united states. >> martha: one last topic i want to get to come of this story that crossed a little while ago in "the wall street journal" about the white house wanting to have a consent decree over columbia university in order to insist if they are going to take any federal dollars they have to follow the rules of the white house has laid down especially with regard to anti-semitism and other elements of the white house is clearly pushed back hard on these universities come either the present bring this up with the

education secretary today. explained to us what kind of control does this consent decree give the administration over columbia and perhaps other universities as well. >> i can tell you the white house has been working hand-in-hand with secretary mcmahon and the department of education to bring these colleges and universities to the table to negotiate on behalf of jewish american students who have felt threatened, who have been victims of violence and hate speech at our nations higher education universities and campuses. it's on acceptable to this president. as the secretary of education said in a cabinet meeting today at federal funding will be

withheld until these universities comply with the demands to keep jewish american students on their college campuses safe and to eradicate anti-semitism and hate speech from their campuses. >> ma>> martha: it's interesting the obama administration had consent decrees against universities as well when it came to their policies on how sexual harassment issues would be dealt with on campus it's not unprecedented for the white house to impose on universities that there are strings attached if they want federal dollars. it's an interesting story we will keep an eye on it. thank you very much. coming up, elon musk reveals a jaw-dropping doge find he says he had to read it several times before it sinks in. >> if you ask me how are you going to find ways to the federal government -- just go i) any direction, that's how yo iu find it. when i think of the veteran out there, that he needs to refi his home, he may want to purchase, we can help them and provide that financial solution for them and their families. it's a great, rewarding feeling. everybody in the company, they have that deference and that respect and that love for the veteran that makes this company so unique. ♪

here's an important benefit for veteran homeowners, who need cash. you can take out 70,000 dollars or more with a newday 100 va cash out loan. with home values still close to all-time highs, now's the time to turn your home equity into cash. rates on credit cards and car loans have skyrocketed. pay off those high-rate cards and costly car and truck loans and save hundreds of dollars a month, thousands a year. need cash? call newday usa. call 1-855-595-9640. if you're living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or active psoriatic arthritis symptoms can sometimes hold you back. but now, there's skyrizi, so you can be all in with clearer skin. ♪ things are getting clearer ♪ ♪ i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin, yeah that's all me ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ with skyrizi you can show up with dramatically clearer skin. and if you have psoriatic arthritis skyrizi can help you move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling,

and fatigue. skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. thanks to skyrizi, there's nothing like clearer skin, and better movement. and that means everything! ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ask your doctor about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. ever since they got directv, they don't miss a game— not the opening pitch, not even the pre-game flyover! bobby, look! it's baseball season in america, baby! you know those geese are canadian, right? they've got baseball there, too.

mike had a heart attack a year ago. but he's still.. living in the red. with a very high risk of another attack. with his risk factors his recommended ldl-c level should be below 55. are you at risk? learn how to get a free ldl-c test at attackheartdisease.com. (♪) (♪) (♪) (♪) (♪)

>> martha: elon musk making this announcement a short time ago as president trump's cabinet meeting which we carried live this afternoon -- watch this. >> we anticipate savings in fy26 from reduction by waste and fraud by $150 billion. some of it is just absurd to. people getting unemployment insurance who haven't been born yet. i think anyone can appreciate -- come on. that's just crazy. >> martha: it seems like you have to be born to be the recipient of that. that's just one of several eye-popping claims from doge involving an employment insurance claims in this country from a lot of racket going on out there. fox business correspondent hillary vaughn reporting live on what they found from capitol hill. >> reporter: this goes down as one of the craziest examples of government fraud, elon musk and his doge team have found fickle

people from the future getting unemployment checks, people who have already died getting on employment checks. that sounds like some twisted back to the future of sequel but it's real life and how your taxpayer dollars are being stolen by scammers. the department of government of did an audit of unemployment insurance claims since 2020 -- this is just over the past five years. they found 24,000 dead people, 115 years old claimed $59 billion in benefits, 28,000 people under five years old claimed a massive $254 million in unemployment benefits and over 9,000 people who have not been born yet claimed a $69 million in benefits. president trump wants to know how to get the money back. speak of the oldest person in our country is 114 years old -- that's pretty good. >> apparently there's 24,000 more of them that are 115 or older. >> i hope you hear that, 24,000 older than the oldest person.

what are we doing about that, how do we get that money back? >> we are doing further investigation, we should never havehave a statue of limitation. >> put fraud controls in place so if someone is not born yet is trying to get the money they are at least flagged as suspicious. in one example some who claims to be born in 2154. almost 30 years in the future actually received at $41 from the government. >> martha: thank you very much, good thing folks are finally eating the bushes to find out some of this stuff. hhs secretary robert kennedy jr. joining me in just moments, we will also get reaction from democrats as a bill that says you have to show a valid i.d. if you're going to vote in this country got only four votes from

democrats.

your new bike is officially protected by america's #1 motorcycle insurer. we can now safely go wherever the wind takes us. [ engine revs ] let's ride. [ tire squeals ] it was one of those books that smelled bad, but in a good way. you know? nah, man. -oh. -didn't think this through, -did you? -no. you go in without me. the owner and i aren't on speaking terms. apparently the refills are limited. -kay...? -it's not okay.

okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. (♪)

>> martha: the house passed a bill that you must show valid i.d. to vote, something in 80% of americans support. only four democrats in the house voted for that bill, all republicans voted for it earlier today. on that and other topics let's bring in democratic senator elissa slotkin of michigan, she voted against that bill when she was in the house. she is a former cia analyst, she served in iraq and this is her first time joining us as a senator. since she won her election in november, a collection that she won. good to have you here, thank you for joining me. let's start there, would you vote in favor of that bill that voters have to show i.d. in order to vote at the federal level? >> i didn't vote on it in the house and if it comes to the senate i won't vote on it for the simple reason that requires a specific list of i.d. that you

can use at the voting booth. your driver's license is not good enough. you have to use your birth certificate or your passport. 60% of michiganders don't have a passport. for 80% of women in this country who are married, they've changed their name from their birth certificates. it makes it harder to have women vote, it makes it harder if you don't have a passport. i'm all for keeping noncitizens from voting -- >> martha: why not just amend the bill to make sure you can use your license and it say you'll vote, would you vote yes for that? >> for sure, if there was a way to -- >> martha: it doesn't seem like it's complicated. >> martha: it's not, we tried, we set a change, amended, we are willing to work with you we don't want noncitizens voting on there's penalties against that. >> martha: that's because some states allow people who are here not legally to have a driver's license. they want some form of back up. do you believe -- do you have a problem with people having to show i.d. to prove they are

valid american citizens to vote in this country? >> no, we already have that's. in the state of michigan you have to be a citizen to be able to vote, get on the portables period. we had a five and half million people vote in our last election. i have no problem, no one wants a noncitizen voting, it happens in very, very rare instances but just make the bill workable. if 80% of women who are married change their names, the birth certificate is not good to match. >> martha: i changed stuff when i got married is not that hard to do that. i want to ask about the bill you put forward which is to prevent chinese vehicles from entering the united states. obviously a lot of cars with american names on them -- buick, lincoln, -- a lot of those cars are made in china and they come over here and have an american label on them. how would this work? >> the most important thing is the chinese vehicles that are out there there's a big company

called byd, th they are most the time made in china, who was getting the data those cars are collecting? 3d mapping, lidar, geolocation of specific people, rafts of data is going back to beijing for them to use as they see fit to. that's what we are trying to ban, not just the vehicle itself but the parts that control the data and set it back another country. as long as the data is controlled by americans on americans, that's a different conversation. that's what our car companies do they have very sophisticated cars that we make in detroit that collect data as well but control of the data is here, not going back to china. >> martha: byd is a huge company but i've never seen one here i think we have very few of them here. certainly your concern is like a tiktok concern. grabbing data in another way. what would you tell lincoln and buick for example? you want them to not have any of

their components come from china, you want to lock that down? >> i say if you have components that are allowing the chinese government access to american and american data, we have a problem. and i would say byd is not on our roads now, that's why we are doing this bill. they are trying to buy car factories in mexico and they had become the fastest growing car in europe because they are a $10,000-looking tesla. very cheap looking, subsidized by the chinese government. the point is before what happened in europe happens in the united states, i want to give the ability by law to block chinese vehicles, chinese technology that sends a data back to beijing. >> martha: are you in favor of the coupling from china, the u.s. economy completely? >> i think we learned during covid we are overly reliant on china. that was a huge problem not just in buying a couch or a phone or something but even some of our military equipment we realized had origins in china.

we have to make sure we understand a certain item should always be made in the united states, particularly if there is national security implications. i think we all learned the chickens came home to roost during covid. >> martha: senator elissa slotkin, we'll see you again. coming up we'll speak with rfk jr., he will join us on the movement he is leading at hhs and the big announcement on autism that he teed up at the white house. >> by september we will know what has caused the autism epidemic. will not be able to eliminate those exposures. >> you think you're going to have a good idea. >> we will know by september. >> they will be no bigger news conference. if you can come up with that answer. you want high-performance long-lasting, affordable tools.

you want harbor freight tools. whatever you do, do it for less at harbor freight. save like never before at spring black friday. (♪) (vo) i try to put my arm around any vet that i can, absolutely. at newday usa, that's what we're doing. we put our arm around the veterans. when i think of the veteran out there, that he needs to refi his home, he may want to purchase, we can help them and provide that financial solution for them and their families. it's a great, rewarding feeling. everybody in the company, they have that deference and that respect and that love for the veteran that makes this company so unique. ♪ here's an important benefit for veteran homeowners, who need cash. you can take out 70,000 dollars or more

with a newday 100 va cash out loan. with home values still close to all-time highs, now's the time to turn your home equity into cash. rates on credit cards and car loans have skyrocketed. pay off those high-rate cards and costly car and truck loans and save hundreds of dollars a month, thousands a year. need cash? call newday usa. call 1-855-595-9640. ♪ let's get you home. ♪ paying your rent should count for something. ♪ with rentrewards from rocket mortgage, your rent counts toward buying a home. ♪ helping turn more renters into owners. ♪ get started at rocket.com it takes healthy joints to be a copilot, and a trusty coworker.

give your dog cosequin, a daily supplement for joint health support in dogs of all sizes. for your co-everything, choose cosequin.

>> martha: we are monitoring a situation in new york, the nypd

telling us there's a helicopter crash in the hudson river. fdny and land marine units are on scene and we are told they are performing rescue operations. we will get you an update on that as soon as we can. >> working at hhs to advance -- to make america healthy again. we have launched an operation to get the bad chemicals out of baby formula. we are working with governors across the country to get good food into the school lunch programs and to get rid of chemical dyes and other bad chemicals that are in our food to go we have now 38% of american youth are prediabetic. for every child it becomes diabetic there should be a headline about them. >> martha: that is the hhs secretary rfk jr. at the cabinet meeting a short time ago.

secretary kennedy will join us live at the moment as house democrats accuse republicans of trying to cut medicaid benefits, g.o.p. leaders say that it's not true. that's a lie. >> what's going to be very difficult for them because once the committee process starts, they can no longer pretend as if they are not intending to cut medicaid to. >> no one has talked about cutting one benefit in medicaid, the democrats are trying to lie to the american people. $51 billion a year in medicaid is lost to fraud, that's unconscionable. >> martha: hhs secretary rfk jr. joins us now. thank you for being with us it's good to have you back on the program. >> happy to be with you martha. >> martha: let's start there and i want to get to a few other topics as well. you oversee the medicaid program, do you think -- they are looking for $880 billion in savings over ten years. the fraud number is somewhere between 30 and $50 billion a year. do you think they can cut that

money out of medicaid and is it something you support? >> i certainly support any cut of waste or misuse or fraud. we are in a very good position now to identify that and eliminate it because we have doge working with us and they have been extraordinary about finding fraud in all of the agencies. they are being very helpful for us. we think we can identify it and eliminate it. while incidentally protecting the medicaid program and improving services to our poorest americans. >> martha: i know you've been out across the country promoting maha and talking to people, you just drop the news that the cabinet meeting moments ago you think there would be an answer as to what causes autism. we've seen tremendous growth in

autism in this country in europe were to have that by september. can you open the aperture on that a little bit and tell us what you are working on or what you think this is going to show? >> we are launching requests for scientists from all over the country and all over the world to start to directly answer that question. nothing like that has been done before and it should've been done 20 years ago. when i was a kid the autism rates were about one in 10000 t, today they are one in 36 officially but the new reports are going to come out in the next week. the preliminary numbers look like it's dropped to an extraordinary, astonishing one in every 31 kids with some communities being very, very badly hurt. black boys, it's down -- it looks like about one in 12 or one in ten. this is an epidemic like nothing we have ever seen before.

it dwarfs the covid epidemic. these are children, covid was killing elderly people at the end of their lives. this is disabled and children for entire lives. >> martha: there was a thought that vaccines might be related to the of the needed several studies that said there was no connection between vaccines and autism. what are you seeing in this data that you're looking at or is it all going to be brand-new? speak of the studies they did were very narrow and there were about 17 studies the institute of medicine which is part of the national academy of sciences said that 14 of those studies are invalid. of the biggest weakness of those studies as they never studied vaccinated versus unvaccinated -- the only way you can really make this determination. more importantly, none of the vaccines given to children during the first six months of life were ever studied.

we are going to look at everything, everything is on the table. our food system, water, air, different ways of parenting, all the changes that have triggered this epidemic. it is an epidemic, epidemics are not caused by genes. genes can provide a vulnerability but you need an environmental toxin. we know it is an environmental toxin that is causing this cataclysm and we are going to identify it. we are narrowly focused on identifying and using as many scientists as we can from universities and research centers all over the world. focus them through nih, focus on answering this question. >> martha: everybody would like an answer to it in the numbers are astonishing. you were recently in texas, you want to the funeral of daisy hildebrand, an 8-year-old girl, mennonite girl who died from complications after contracting

measles. you went on to say in the story around that you do believe the mmr vaccine is the most effective way to limit the spread. do you believe that daisy would have died or her cousin would have been sickened if they had had that mmr vaccine which they did not have for religious exemption reasons. >> it's very hard to tell. daisy, i've seen her medical reports. she had a lot of complications that could have killed her, particularly she had acute tonsillectomy, she had been hospitalized three times before. she also had acute mononucleosis she could not shake. she was graft positive for bacteria in her blood system which is a red flag and her death was caused by pneumonia. her parents said she was over measles to go weeks before.

it's hard to tell, measles is often accompanied by pulmonary and respiratory illnesses, but we need to do better at treating kids who have this disease and not just saying the only answer is vaccination, we also need to make sure doctors know the appropriate treatment for those kind of diseases as well. >> martha: with regard to fluoride you mentioned this today in the meeting as well -- utah's no banning it in their water, florida is not far behind. some people are making fun of this will push on fluoride that you're part of because most of us grew up thinking it was good for us. it's interesting the cdc in 2019 put out a warning telling parents don't let your kids use too much toothpaste. that tells you something right there, also europe decided to take it out of their water along time ago, do you think this is going to be a nationwide effort to? >> yeah, both the epa, my agency hhs are now reviewing the fluoride science. there's a lot of recent science

including the national toxicity program which is the ultimate arbiter of the safety of environmental exposures and substances. in august the national toxicity program put out a review that showed that children and people who are exposed -- there's a direct inverse correlation between exposure to fluoride, it's a dose related, the more fluoride you get the lower your iq is going to be. the benefits of fluoride are topical. it was originally thought when we put it in the water back in the 1940s that there were systemic -- if you drank it, it would do something to your body to prevent the growth of cavities. that's not how it works. the entire benefit of it comes from topical application. there's really no reason to have it in the water supply in this era where we have toothpaste and we have mouthwash is where you

can get that. there's also a moral issue, we should not be forcing people to take this if they don't want to and that there is also prin principle. fluoride is associated not only with iq loss but also extreme loss in bone density. there's a swedish study that showed people on the most fluoridated systems have 50% more hip fractures than people who are unless one's. it affects the kidneys, it calcified as the thyroid and does a lot of other bad things. in europe where they bandits, they have not seen any kind of dramatic increase in cavities. >> martha: thank you very much hhs secretary robert f. kennedy, always good to see you. thank you for joining us this afternoon. we got some breaking news we got to get to in the hudson river right now where there is a rescue going on for a downed helicopter in the hudson river,

the fdny is on the scene, it apparently happened on the jersey city side. darin is a former black hawk helicopter pilot and army veteran, it's hard to see what is happening at this point but your thoughts on how long this could be in the water and have a successful rescue effort? >> thanks for having me on. the first thought as always when i hear about accidents is is it human, environmental, or mechanical failure of some sort to? odds of rescue are always something that's a challenge to be able to determine. the first few hours are of course critical, one of things it also sticks out to me is the fact that the hudson river is very busy with helicopter traffic. i wouldn't be quick to rule out the possibility that it had something to do with other aircraft in the area, i don't

know that. if this is a solo crash by itself, there are a number of things that come to mind that could explain -- it's way too early to know now. >> martha: we are seeing some indications that there may be fatalities here. and some reports that a child is in the process of being rescued to. to be cautious with all of this. there are five people, we understand at least who were involved in this accident according to updates we see coming in from law enforcement sources as we continue to cover this. obviously we hope and pray these people will be rescued and they can be removed safely from the water in the hudson river. this is on the jersey side as we mentioned. give us a sense of what the process is of getting people out of this in the rescue part of this operation if you can quickly. >> that continues to be one of

the hardest things when it comes to search and rescue operations when you have to do it potentially underwater in a wreckage situation. they're going to move very quickly, they are very professional. the first thing they are going to do is get people onto the scene and make sure they are able to identify locations for any of them and if any of them are recoverable they will move through that process extremely quickly. after that the longer this goes on the harder it is. >> martha: we are looking at the live shot, helicopter down in the hudson river. i can report from law enforcement sources that a child is being worked on with cpr by the fdny who are on the scene. every effort is being made it to save these individuals who were involved in his helicopter crash. we are going to have more, alexis mcadams is on her way to cover the story for us. continuing coverage on fox news. ♪ ♪